Chapter 19: Paper

TL: Pengu

ED: Fraiziar

“Heee, so this is a horse.”

“Ah. Your first time Seeing one?”

“Yes. It is amazing”

Ron said so while petting the horse.

The horse is just eating grass with disinterested expression.

“Naa, nii-san. Can I ask something?”

“Hmm? what is it?”

“Who is that woman?”

Roswald said, pointing his finger to the woman who was brushing the cow.

“Ah. She’s Lia. She is a slave. I got her.”

Horses are valuable.

Both cows and horses are meant to be work force, but the horse’s strong point is that they run faster.

In terms of transporting luggage, Horses are far superior.

However, some techniques are needed to handle horses.

Unfortunately, Soyon’s parents did not keep horses at home. She was at a loss.

When I spoke to Einzo about this, he told me…

“Then, I’ll give you a slave as a present that knows how to deal with horses. In exchange, let’s get along well from now on.”

That is what he said.

Thus, I received a female slave named Lia.

He purposely chose a female slave so she would be useful for “those” sort of things.

I don’t really condone coercing someone into those kinds of things just because I claim to be their master.

“She seems to be from the mounted nomads in the east of here. For the time being, she can’t speak this region language , but we can communicate because I have [Divine Blessing of Language]. Therefore, speak with me when you want to tell her something.”

“E, hee……”

Roswald glancing at the Lia frequently, but Lia doesn’t concern herself and takes care of the cows.

Is this guy in heat too?……

Both Ron and Soyon have been acting flirty recently whenever they have the chance.

Recently, the 14 year olds have been getting energetic.

No, I should be pleased with their growth, I get it.

“Almis! I killed a wild boar!!”

A loud voice entered my ears.

When I look towards the direction of the voice, I see a large man who carrying a wild boar on his shoulders.

It is Gram.

His height has already surpassed me a long time ago, moreover his back is pretty wide too. Not a single trace of when he was all stuttery remained.

Who are you? that’s is the situation.

Well, archery does require considerably muscle strength.

“Heh heh! My magic was helpful! Isn’t it wonderful? I’m the strongest aren’t I?”

Beside Gram, a short girl puffed out her petite chest.

It was Lulu. This 12 years old girl magician is skilled.

She was the first in this village to be able to cast spells and set up barriers.

She has been with Gram quite a lot recently. .

“Hey, Almis. When will the slaves you bought from king Rosaith come?”

“In less than a month.”

“Are you going to act flirty with the sex slaves?”

“Yup!… wait No! In the first place I only asked for male slaves!”

Why would I spend money on something as useless as a sex slave? Stupid.

“That’s a relief.”

Tetora embraced me.

……

I have trouble reacting when such candid affection is shown.

——————————————

“By the way, what are you making now?”

“I am thinking of making paper.”

Paper.

Its one of the four major invention of China.

Even in the modern age, it is used as a medium for storing information.

There is no paper anywhere around our region.

strips of wood , parchment (made of animal skin), and papyrus are what is used for writing messages.

There are two kinds of paper, western paper and Japanese paper.(Washi)(Note: washi is a Japanese man-made paper)

The difference between the two is the raw materials used to make them.

Washi is made using tree bark, while western paper uses the interior of the tree.

Wood from the inside of the tree is durable, so special chemicals are needed to dissolve it. That’s why I’ve decided to make washi in our case.

To make genuine, clean paper, various troublesome manufacturing processes are needed, but making primitive paper is a simple task that we can do.

Cai Lun (The inventor of Washi) boiled things like spare netting, scrap fabric, and bark to make paper.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any fabric, but I have plenty of tree bark.

“Why are you making such thing? It isn’t particularly necessary.”

“Well, not for us yeah.”

In the first place, there are very few literate people in this region so it really is unnecessary, (for here that is).

Could it be that that using strips of wood is enough?

However, I expect it’s different for the Karishians.

If they have such advanced technology, It’s a given that they will need paper.

Paper is advantageous for trade since it is light.

In addition, there is plenty of leftover tree bark…

Since I had cut down several trees in order to make charcoal fuel and earthenware.

It’d be good to use the tree bark too.

“Now then, what should I do first……Should I start with tearing off the tree bark and soaking it in water?”

For now, we started with that.

As I have never made paper before, half of what I do is intuition.

I think I will be able to make it because I once saw a little of it on TV.

“Though, It has to soak it for the whole day, what will we do?”

“We’ll tear off the bark I guess.”

I removed the dirty portion with everyone. Only the white part is left.

“Next is?”

“I boiled this but………if I am not mistaken, it suppose be boiled in alkali.”

As for alkali, some ashey-water should do. It is lye.

It is easily melt because of the nature of the weakness alkaline solution.

“Next, I think we should boil this but……”

I looked at the peeled tree bark in the pottery.

I felt something was insufficient.

“Heym we should break apart those tree fibers right?”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“Then, shall we smash and cut it?

I see. Now that she mentions it, There was a step like that.

As expected of Tetra.

“For now, take one out, I will crush it with the mortar.”

She took out some of the boiled tree bark, and I grinded it, and once more put it into the pot, and she took out some more and I grinded that as well.

I repeated this many times.

“Good, it dissolved.”

There is no trace of tree bark anymore.

It’s all syrupy and mushy…

“It should be complete once we spread it out and dry it”

I put it on a wooden board and spread it carefully.

The thickness must be uniform, if i am not mistaken………

It was considerably difficult.

“I only need to wait for it to dry.”

I put the wooden board in a sunny location. Now it’s up to the sun now.

“Its light and solid. This is fantastic.”

Ron said so while touching the paper.

“It seems like it would be easy to write on since it is white. As expected of Nii-san.”

Roswald said while carefully peeling off the paper.

“Are you going to sell this?”

“Yeah, Its value as it is right now should fetch a reasonable price”

To be frank, it can’t be described as well made by someone who has seen modern paper.

He said it’s white, though that’s because it is higher standard than that which is used in this region.

“By the way,is it really necessary? Though trading honey would be enough”

“Well, normally we could just go about our daily lives without caring, But we don’t know what could happen. Like if harmful pests annihilated our wheat. We can’t depend on the Griffon anymore. I want a means to secure food in case of emergency.”

At worst, we can pass starvation by purchase grain from Karishian.

The more industries the better.

“Um……Shouldn’t you color beautiful paper or something? I think its value would go up if you did that.”

“For something like being material for a folding fan?”

“That’s sound good! Incidentally, can this be use for that?”

“It’s light, and it’s so easy to carry!”

The three, Soyon, Tetra, and Lulu got excited.

“Nee, can this be made stronger? I don’t mind if the color become dirty.”

“What are you using it for?”

“How about a box? Wooden boxes are heavy. Wouldn’t it be easier if I substitute wood with this?”

“However, the problem is its strength.”

Ron and Gram began to argue.

These guys have become flexible thinkers recently. This is a good trend.

“AH!!!”

A scream broke out. It was an unfamiliar voice.

Well, this is……

“Lia! Are you ok?”

Roswald runs up to the female slave who screamed.

You run too fast, you know?

I turn toward Lia, too.

Lia’s eyes were watery.

There is a goat munching something beside Lia.

“Nii-san! What is Lia saying?”

“……She said that the goat is eating the paper.”

” I am s-sorry.”

Lia lowers her head and apologizes to me.

“Don’t mind it. It’s the goat’s fault not yours.”

I laughed as I said so. I don’t know how to handle slaves.

Well, I don’t understand children either.

Should I treat her normally? What a pain.

Still, is it alright for it to eat paper?

At the zoo they ask children “please do not feed the animals paper, it will damage their stomachs” on posters but…

Please don’t die.

You are important asset.